Foodie Film Friday - The Hundred-Foot Journey

This week's foodie film Friday is actually about a film I went to see only last week and is still on in cinemas.  After seeing a trailer for 'The Hundred-Foot Journey' I decided that it was definitely a film for me.  Just a warning that this review does contain some spoilers.

While it is a very enjoyable film, featuring some great food, I wouldn't go with high expectations as it is fundamentally a romance film with a rather predictable plot.

The film is based on an Indian family who set up a typical indian restaurant in a provincial French town right opposite a Michelin-starred restaurant.  This leads to some fierce competition and a Romeo and Juliet-esque relationship.  The cliché romance and poor French accents aside, I really loved this film for the food, from the sea urchins at the Indian market in the initial scene to the French markets later on, with their stalls piled high with fish and mushrooms, including my personal favourite - chanterelles.

My favourite scene in this film has to be the one in which Hassan and Madame Mallory make an omelette with an Indian twist.  I love how something as simple as an omelette can be made into a tasty delight by adding a few carefully selected ingredients.  It's one of my go-to dishes when I'm hungry and want something quick to make and is a great way of using up leftovers.

You should definitely eat before going to see this film, as even on a full stomach you will find some of the scenes make your mouth water.  It's a shame about the predictability of the storyline, but what the film lacks in plot it more than makes up for in food and beautiful scenery.

I would give this film an overall rating of 3/5 - it was a lovely, light-hearted film
As for how serious the film was I'd give it a 3/5 (where 1 is serious and 5 is lighthearted) - although it was fundamentally a rom com there were some more serious elements highlighting the importance of keeping in touch with reality and your roots, an important message in my opinion.
This film scores a 3/5 for food content as it features a lot, but is not always the main focus of the film.

Truly Scrumptious

Just because I haven't been blogging much recently does not mean I haven't been cooking!  Yesterday was no exception.  I decided to do a spot of baking and finally got round to making macaroons, something which I have been wanting to try for ages.

My first macaroons

Having never made macaroons before I decided to keep it relatively simple, choosing this recipe for chocolate and raspberry flavoured ones.  In general it was easy to follow, however it was a little tricky in places as, this being my first attempt, I was not sure how thick the almond and sugar paste should be, nor what a macaroon looked like when it was ready to come out the oven.  So with a little bit of estimating and educated guessing I produced my first ever batch of macaroons.

I actually weighed out all my ingredients in advance, something which I often don't do, so that I knew I had everything ready to go.  Sieving almonds and icing sugar is easier said than done, although the point is to get rid of any bits of almond which are too large.  I managed not to burn my simple syrup and the meringue looked as it should.

When it comes to food colouring I will have to do a little more reading.  The recipe recommended 1/2 teaspoon of red food colouring which was certainly not enough to produce the bright colours shown in the picture.  A lot more would have been needed to get anywhere near that colour, however I'm not sure what effect that quantity of liquid would have on the mixture.

Folding the meringue into the almond paste was tricky as it took longer than I expected owing to the consistency of the paste (I may have needed to make it a little runnier by adding more egg whites) but it seemed to work out fine.

The meringue and almond paste mixture

Next came the fun part - piping the macaroons!  It is very difficult to pipe a circle just two and a half centimetres in diameter so some of my macaroons ended up being a little larger than planned but I don't think it mattered, I just made slightly fewer than the recipe suggested.

Before baking

They need to be left for half an hour so that a skin forms on the macaroons before they are baked in the oven for 14 minutes.  After taking them out I would definitely recommend leaving them to cool before using a knife to scrape them off the tray as hopefully they will crumble less.

Fresh out the oven

In the meantime I set about making a ganache.  Now, for my birthday I was going to post about a lovely cake I made with a ganache coating, but my ganache failed not once, but twice and while delicious it was not blog-worthy, so that was the end of that idea.  Fortunately I was able to produce a lovely ganache yesterday simply by using a chocolate with a lower cocoa content.  Previously I had used Lindt 80% dark chocolate which hadn't melted properly and caused the ganache to split and go lumpy.  This time I used Sainsbury's 53% dark baking chocolate and the ganache turned out perfectly!

The ganache

I needed less ganache and more jam than the recipe called for but that really wasn't a problem.  I got the piping bag out again and piped generous amounts of ganache around the edge of the macaroons and went back filling in the centres with raspberry jam.  If you want your macaroons to have a stronger taste then I would recommend adding some flavouring along with your food colouring, although not too much as you do still want to be able to taste the almonds.

Pipe a ring of ganache

Fill with jam

All that was left to do was sandwich the macaroons together.  I can confirm that macaroons are definitely best enjoyed fresh!

Delicious!

Foodie Film Friday - Ratatouille

Sorry this post is late, it may not be Friday but I hope you enjoy it all the same!

This week I decided to do some cooking to go with my film.  I recently bought Rachel Khoo's second book 'Little French Kitchen' and found that it contained a recipe for a French 'tian', the dish actually featured in Ratatouille which apparently isn't a real ratatouille at all!  For a proper ratatouille you are meant to cook the vegetables separately before combining them, whereas for a tian you arrange the vegetable slices and bake them all at once.  Anyway from the first time I saw this film I fell in love with the dish as it looks divine, so here is my attempt at a 'tian provençal'.

For five people I used an aubergine, a courgette and around 6 plum tomatoes.  I cut them into thin slices using a mandolin and the slicing attachment on the food processor.

Thinly chop the vegetables

The base is made up of three large onions, diced and fried until soft.  You then cover them with a layer of sliced vegetables.

All that's left to do is arrange the sliced vegetables on top.  I decided to arrange them in a repeating, circular pattern, as in the recipe.

Arrange the vegetables

Fill in the centre with the remaining sliced vegetables.

Ready for the oven

Then drizzle with some olive oil, sprinkle over some salt and bake in the oven for half an hour or so.

The finished tian

Although the preparation for the tian takes some time, I love the simplicity of this dish and I think this really is captured in the film Ratatouille.  The way Remy talks about flavours is great, how you can take two delicious flavours, combine them and turn them into something even better.  It really sums up what cooking is for me, taking ingredients I love and creating something even more wonderful from them.

Aside from the excellent food the characters are loveable too and the plot is not only funny but really captures the imagination.  When you combine Pixar and Disney with food you really do end up with a match made in heaven.

My overall rating for this film is 4/5 - I really do love this film

I would give this film a 4/5 for seriousness (where 1 is serious and 5 is lighthearted) as it is after all an animated film centering around a rat who can cook.  However, I do love the fundamental message of the film which is that anyone can cook.

Since food features a lot in this film, from soups to omelettes and of course, the title dish, ratatouille, I am going to give this film a 4/5 on the foodie front.

The first post in forever feat. scotch eggs

I know I said I'd try and schedule some posts but (clearly) that didn't work out!  Anyway, I'm back off my travels (for now) and have found some time to write a post.  I've been wanting to try making scotch eggs for a while now and being back home in a proper kitchen seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Scotch eggs

They were actually remarkably simple to make!  I followed the Baker Brothers' recipe and it worked really well.  While boiling the eggs for around 6 mins I made up the sausage meat to go around the eggs.  I used pork mince, fresh thyme, ground mace and English mustard along with some salt and pepper to season.  Once I'd mixed all that together the eggs were done.  The easiest way to peel them is to place them in a pan of cold water, then once cooled continue to run cold water over them while peeling.

Although they said to use plain breadcrumbs I decided to use some left over from another day which also had some lemon zest and oregano in them and it really did improve the taste of the outer coating.  It's also worth noting that I prefer not to use shop-bought breadcrumbs, instead I like to cut of the crusts of bread and whizz them up in a food processor for a few minutes to make my own, I find that they are less dry and make for a more interesting texture.

Once the breadcrumbs and eggs have been prepared lay out a small square of cling film on your work surface (large enough to wrap round your egg) and divide the mixture up to ensure you use roughly the same amount for each egg.  Spread one portion out over the cling film using the back of a spoon to form an oval shape which is roughly the same thickness all the way across and which will fit round an egg.  Place the egg in the centre and gather up the cling film so that the sausage meat coats the egg.  Remove the cling film and remember you will need to use your hands to mould the sausage meat, cover up any holes which have formed and to form a seal.  Place the coated eggs on a plate and leave them in the fridge to firm up.

Sausage-coated eggs

For the next stage you'll need three plates and a bowl.  Cover one plate in plain flour, one in the breadcrumbs and leave the other free for the finished eggs.  You'll also need to beat a couple of eggs with some milk and place them in a bowl.  Roll the sausage-coated eggs first in flour, then in the egg mix followed by the breadcrumbs before rolling it in the egg and breadcrumbs for a second time.  Place the eggs on the empty plate and then put them back in the fridge to firm up again.

The coated eggs

While the eggs are firming up in the fridge I heated the oil in a deep fat fryer.  I placed the eggs in two at a time for about 1 minute and forty seconds and transferred them to an empty plate after draining.  The eggs will then need to go into a preheated oven for ten minutes or so in order to cook through fully.

The finished eggs - fried and baked

The eggs turned out beautifully, with slightly runny centres and crispy outer coatings.  The eggs are best eaten fresh with a salad but they can be put in the fridge to eat another day.  If cooked just right the centres will still be a little gooey even the following day.  However, I will admit that there is a certain element of luck involved in cooking scotch eggs as you can't see inside.  I advise making an extra egg if you can which you can cut open after it's been in the oven to check the progress of the eggs, if the meat isn't quite cooked through then you can fold it up again and pop all the eggs back in the oven.

A perfectly gooey centre

All in all scotch eggs are definitely worth the effort as when you make them yourself they really do taste a lot better than the ones you can buy in the shops.  I'll update this post when I try them again.  Next time I hope to try a couple of variations on this more traditional recipe, perhaps with a black pudding instead of sausage meat, or falafel for the veggies!

Cambridge Smokeworks - review

I'd seen lots of announcements that the Smokeworks was going to open and was delighted that it happened to be while I was briefly back in Cambridge, so on opening night D and I went along to give it a try.

From the outside the Smokeworks looks modern and inviting.  Once inside we were shown downstairs which had a cool industrial feel to it.  With good use of mirrors to make the area feel more spacious and a couple of cute alcoves with seating, the downstairs area was a lovely place to sit and eat.

And if you don't have time to eat in (although with the speed of the service this really isn't an issue) then almost all of the food is available to take away.

We were quickly seated and presented with a small, yet appetising menu.  With just 12 dishes on the menu to choose from and the promise that anything we ordered would be delivered to the table at the same time it actually took us longer to decide on drinks than food.  Smokeworks has a great range of beer and bourbons to choose from, with milkshakes for those with a sweeter tooth.

D decided to try a 'piston head kustom lager' (a Swedish beer) along with a shot of whiskey, although not being a fan myself I can't remember which one!  I did however try and thoroughly enjoy the beer and would definitely recommend it.

They certainly delivered on their promise of slow cooked food, delivered quickly to your table.  My bbq pork spare ribs and D's smoked pulled pork bun were delivered to our table in under 10 minutes along with the sides of beef dripping mash and herb seasoned fries.  It was all delicious! The smokiness came through nicely, but wasn't overpowering and the meat itself was lovely and juicy.  You also don't have to wait for someone to come round, if you need anything you can simply twist one of the big red switches on the wall to get their attention.  I thought this was a great idea, especially as their seating was divided between the two floors.

bbq pork spare ribs with herb seasoned fries

I also decided to try out their interesting range of condiments. While the BBQ sauce was delicious and the chipotle sauce was good for a bit of spice my favourite by far was the sweet, hot mustard, a great combination which left me wanting more!

The condiments

I should probably add that there is a very tasty sounding vegetarian option on the menu, a halloumi, mushroom, lettuce and tomato bun (as well as the sides of slaw, fries and pickles).

My only criticism was the lack of a side salad option as I felt it would be nice to have something a little greener on the menu.  Otherwise the Smokeworks delivered both on the quality of the food, the speed of the service and the price.  With main dishes ranging from £5 to £14 and the option of a £20 platter at the top end and sides from £2 to £4.50 the meal really was good value for money.  I would highly recommend visiting the Smokeworks as soon as you get the chance!

If you want to find out more about them you can go to their website or follow them on twitter.  You can't book so just pop along to 2 Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3QA if you want to give them a try, they're open from 11:45 - 22:30 from Sunday through to Thursday and 11:45 - 23:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.